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Who is a U.S. citizen?
A U.S citizen is a person born in America. Our constitution has four ways in which to tell us who is a U.S citizen.
- Make sure you are born in the U.S or one of its territories. This is true even if your parents were not born in America.
- At least one of your parents was born in America. As long as your parents were Citizens in the U.S, it doesn't matter where you are born.
- You have been naturalized which means you passed the naturalization test.
- You were less than the age of eighteen when your parents passed the naturalization test.
How can one become a citizen?
Once a family moves to the U.S, they have to take a test to be an American, which is called the Naturalization test. You are not an American until you pass this test. Until then, you are recognized as an alien which is a person who was born in another country then moved to the U.S. The Naturalization test includes a class on learning English, studing American history, and learned Values, laws, rights, and duties of a citizen. Naturalized citizens have all the rights and duties of citizens by birth except the right to be president or vice president. There are a few ways you can give up citizenship. You have the choice to give up citizenship if you want and you may also lose your citizenship if your trying to overthrow the government by force.
What are the rights, duties, and responsibilities of good citiezenship?
- vote
- join a political party
- write a letter to the editor of a newspaper
- educate yourself and continue learning throughout your life
- help others in your community
- keep a good health
- recycle
- appear as a witness in court
- read the newspaper and watch the T.V.
- have privacy at your home and your personal life
- prepare to support yourself financially
- pay all of your taxes
- register for the military service if you're a male
- obey the laws
- serve on the jury
- attend school to age 18 in the state of Wisconsin
What power does one have with the "office of citizen?"
We decide who our representatives are so they can be our voices in congress, the representatives or the president holds the office as long as we want them to. We as citizens hold the most important office there is we all so elect our presidents.
Citizenship Interview and Ceremony